Leaked memo from Reddit CEO: “We will not ban legal content”

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:30:00 +0000

Gawker's recent expose on the identity of notorious troll Violentacrez hit the Internet hard: Michael Brutsch lost his job, Reddit moderators banned the profile for a day and censored links to Gawker in over 70 subreddits, and the Internet exploded into a heated debate about doxxing -- the practice of using publicly available information to piece together and reveal an anonymous poster's identity -- and free speech on the Internet.

During this time, however, one voice remained conspicuously absent: that of Reddit's management.

On Tuesday night, Gawker received a leaked memo from Reddit CEO Yishan Wong, originally posted in a private subreddit. In the memo, Wong finally weighed in on the issue, saying, "We will not ban legal content even if we find it odious or if we personally condemn it," meaning that free speech -- even for creepy trolls like Violentacrez -- continues to have a place on the site. But Wong acknowledged that the Reddit community went against this very principle by banning Chen's piece and censoring links to Gawker:

Salon.com > yishan wong

Leaked memo from Reddit CEO: “We will not ban legal content”